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Reusable transport packaging comes of age

Rising packaging material and supply-chain costs, environmental pressures, and government regulations make reusable transport packaging an attractive and profitable option.

Pw 6066 Reusable Pkg Fig1 Copy

It’s no coincidence that the three directives of the sustainability credo “reduce, reuse, recycle” are always placed in that order. Following source reduction, the next best way to reduce landfill waste and carbon emissions is through package reuse—a concept that package producers, brand owners, and industry groups are increasingly embracing.

“The benefits of reuse exceed those of recycling,” said Tom Huetteman, associate director for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA, www.epa.gov) Waste Management Division, during a presentation to members of the Reusable Packaging Assn. (RPA, www.choosereusables.org). The group, formerly the Reusable Pallet & Container Coalition, held its 2008 Education Forum in Oakland, CA, in September, with sponsorship from the StopWaste Business Waste Prevention Partnership (SWP, www.stopwaste.org).

At the event, Huetteman, along with speakers from government, education, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, met to discuss the growing value of reusable transport packaging systems for meeting both sustainability and economic objectives. The RPA promotes systems such as reusable pallets and pallet/container rental systems, and reusable totes and bins, with or without track-and-trace capabilities.

Huetteman’s observations echoed those of many at the meeting who noted that a marked change is taking place in which the packaging community is looking at sustainability more from a materials management perspective—reducing or reusing materials before they become waste—than from one of waste management, where decisions about how to handle waste are the focus. “Waste is a missed opportunity for the economy and for the environment,” Huetteman said. “The EPA used to take an ‘end-of-pipe’ view. Now we are taking a broader view, looking upstream at source reduction, including reuse, life-cycle design, and durability.

“For materials where the majority of greenhouse gas emissions [GHGs] are produced during manufacturing and no emissions are produced during use, environmental impacts greatly decrease the more a product is reused [see Figure 1]. When you look at the entire life-cycle analysis, hauling packaging for reuse actually has less of an environmental impact than most people perceive. Upstream emissions, for most materials, dominate the environmental impact.”

While the EPA does not regulate solid waste, in 1994 it created WasteWise, a free partnership program formed to encourage waste reduction. Since the program’s inception, Huetteman noted, partners have reported a reduction of more than 137 million tons of waste and nearly 76 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.

Reusable packaging drivers

So what trends are stimulating the increased interest in reusable transport packaging? According to Fred Heptinstall, president of RPA and of IFCO Systems (www.ifco.com), there are several factors. Among them is the mounting pressure being placed on product manufacturers to reduce supply chain costs. These challenges include escalating transport/fuel costs, competition from other countries, and the increasing cost of one-way transport materials, among others. “Reusables take costs out of the supply chain,” he told the audience. Another big driver is the social and environmental sustainability movement. When it comes to reducing Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), he pointed out, the federal government recommends source reduction or reuse as the preferred method. “As for state and local governments,” he added, “some give tax credits to reduce landfill, and some prohibit certain solid waste from landfills.

“Sustainability is picking up more steam; it is not going away. This is not a fad, but a solid trend.”

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